Promoting observation, free range exploration, sense of place and citizen science, through the field notes of a naturalist.

Saturday, 17 July 2010

Snap, crackle and pop

I love a summer drought, warm sunny days, a hose pipe ban to irritate those boring get a life middle aged men who spend Sunday mornings lovingly stroking and washing their cars but above all the big draw down zone at Llandegfedd Reservoir (LR). At this time of year that extensive muddy margin is ideal for passage waders, stone tuning and the occurrence of rice krispies. Yes, the liverwort and rice krispie lookalike Riccia cavernosa is now starting to show well on bare mud at LR. When mature this species forms an attractive rosette up to 3 cm in diameter. For more information on this and other mosses and liverworts I recommend getting your hands on the recently published Mosses and Liverworts of Britain and Ireland a Field Guide co-edited by local lad Sam Bosanquet. The guide gets a five star rating from me!

1 comment:

The book is fab. That Riccia looks even better. I might go on a liverwort twitch there when I am down next month. I know that goes 100% against the ethics of Valley Naturalist but I don't give a damn - each to their own - as long as they rate the natural world, and do their darndest to look after it.

'My own primary motivation for protecting the environment has nothing to do with economics. It is deeply rooted in the pleasure I derive from contact with the natural world, and the moral conviction that we hold the environment in trust for future generations'. Professor Sir John Lawton CBE FRS (2010)